(from indieWIRE)
Day One in Toronto: Antidote Tackling Shakespeare & JT Leroy; InDigEnt & Wenders Partner, and the "Man on the Street"
by Eugene Hernandez and Brian Brooks

It's the first Friday of the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival and as the market side of the event kicks off in earnest today there's already industry news to report. Active producers and company execs who are here in town for the festival often try to capitalize on the heightened industry awareness of a festival market as a time to unveil new projects or initiatives. Such is the case this morning.

Producers Jeff Levy-Hinte and Mary Jane Skalski of Antidote Films are kicking off their Toronto networking with the announcement of two new projects on their slate. "Secretary" director Steve Shainberg is pursuing an adaptation of JT Leroy's "Sarah" (written by Jeffrey Hatcher), while "Love Liza" director Todd Louiso is set to direct a version of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" with Philip Seymour Hoffman. It is being co-adapted by Louiso and Jacob Koskoff.

Levy-Hinte founded Antidote in 2000 and the following year brought in former Good Machine producer Skalski. This year they hit success with "Thirteen," which was acquired at Sundance and recently released in theaters by Fox Searchlight, and also saw Lisa Cholodenko's "Laurel Canyon," released. A feather in Skalski's cap this year has also been Tom McCarthy's "The Station Agent," which she produced with hot NYC production company SenArt. The movie is screening here in Toronto.

For Levy-Hinte, attending a world-class festival like Toronto, with its international film industry attendees, offers a number of upsides. As he explained in a conversation with indieWIRE, he and Skalski benefit from seeing "where the art form is and how is it progressing" while at the same time "intelligence gathering" about who's making what and with whom and also "solidifying relationships" within the typically tight-knit movie business circles at daily breakfast and lunch meetings.

Levy-Hinte and Skalski told indieWIRE that they are pursuing different paths for each of their new projects. With "Macbeth" they are still looking to secure key cast and planning to build other attachments from there. While in the case of "Sarah," the pair see an opportunity to make a deal with a domestic distributor.